A downed tree covers parked cars on Henry Street in Elwood after strong winds and rain moved through the area. (Jan. 31, 2013) Photo Credit: James Carbone

A downed tree covers parked cars on Henry Street in Elwood after strong winds and rain moved through the area. (Jan. 31, 2013) (Credit: James Carbone)

The Long Island Power Authority has restored electric service to all but 590 customers by early evening, and repairs on most of the remaining outages are expected to be done by midnight, the utility said Friday.

The outages peaked at about 30,000 customers Thursday morning after the region was hit by storm winds gusting at more than 60 mph. The disruptions left thousands of homes and businesses...

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The Long Island Power Authority has restored electric service to all but 590 customers by early evening, and repairs on most of the remaining outages are expected to be done by midnight, the utility said Friday.

The outages peaked at about 30,000 customers Thursday morning after the region was hit by storm winds gusting at more than 60 mph. The disruptions left thousands of homes and businesses without light, heat and other services powered by the electric grid.

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LIPA on Friday pushed back repair timelines several times, with some of the hot spots, such as Lloyd Harbor, expected to see power by 10 p.m.

The damage was more extensive than initially reported in some areas, with large trees toppling onto sections of wire, said LIPA spokesman Mark Gross.

In other areas, such as Jericho, hundreds had their power turned off as part of a re-energizing process, Gross said.

The cutoff of power to a Jericho neighborhood "is an intentional outage, which means we de-energize the area to do a permanent fix," Gross said in an email. Power to the area was restored shortly before 6:46 p.m.

Several hundred more outages in the North Shore communities of Lloyd Harbor and Mill Neck were due to power lines felled by trees, including some backyard feeder wires far from roadway access, LIPA said.

"We expect just about all of them to be back by the end of today," Gross said.